PSU Swimmers finish ninth at New England Championships

WHITE RIVER JCT., Vt. - Plymouth State University moved up
two spots on the final day of competition Sunday and finished in
ninth place among 22 schools at the New England Women's Swimming
and Diving Championships held at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center.

All eight Panthers who advanced to Sunday night's finals posted
their fastest time of the year. PSU moved up to the ninth spot this
year after finishing 13th a year ago and going into
Sunday night's finals in 11th place. The Panthers
were also honored at the end of the meet by receiving the Steve
Looke Team Sportsmanship Award.

"The whole weekend was just a fantastic effort from our team," said
head coach Al Switzer. "We missed 6-8 days
of training in the pool back in January and I wasn't sure how that
would affect us, even though we were able to do some aerobic
workouts on land. But over the weekend they just got better
and better, and the last day was a pistol. They complained of
being tired but they rose above it and they just kept improving
their times. Our time in the final relay even went down, and
that's usually super hard to do. It was just a magnificent
effort by our entire team."

Sophomore Nicole Brodeur (Claremont, N.H./Vermont
Academy) and senior Chaz Sweeney (Methuen, Mass.)
recorded the top finishes for the Panthers with a pair of seventh
places. Brodeur qualified seventh in the prelims of the
100-yard freestyle with a time of 56.72 seconds, matching her
personal-best time, and lowered it while holding on to the seventh
place in the finals with a 56.26. Sweeney swam a
season-fastest 30.31 seconds in the 50-yard backstroke prelims, and
stayed in seventh while lowered her time slightly in the finals
with a 30.29 clocking.

Seniors Caitlin Little (Scituate, Mass.) and
Elise Innis (Harpswell, Maine/Mt. Ararat) joined
Brodeur in the 100 freestyle and both recorded their top times in
the prelims. Little went 57.29 in the morning and 57.82 in
the finals to take 12th place while Innis touched the
wall is 58.85 seconds in the prelims and 58.90 in the finals and
ended up 18th.

Sophomore Brittanie Bradley (Scarborough,
Maine) and junior Lindsay Graham (Framingham,
Mass.) represented Plymouth State in the 200-yard breaststroke, and
finished 13th and 14th, respectively.
Bradley improved her best time in the event (2:37.88) by over six
seconds, and Graham had her best time in both the prelims and the
finals (2:43.38).

PSU ended the meet on a strong note as the Panther 400-yard
freestyle relay team captured fifth place with a time of 3:48.65,
dropping over two seconds off their preliminary time. The
group included Brodeur, Little, Innis, and sophomore
Brittney Gondek (South Glastonbury, Conn.).

Keene State College (924 points) captured its third consecutive New
England championship, while Bentley (802) finished second and
Eastern Connecticut (709) third. PSU scored 325 points to
finish ninth, trailing eighth-place Simmons (339) and just ahead of
Western Connecticut (322) and the University of New England (322).

PSU completed the dual meets with a 7-2 record, earning the most
wins in a season since the 1998-99 Panthers went 7-3. The
Panthers have won 12 of their last 14 dual meets dating back to
last season.